Pet Information > ASK Experts > Dogs > Dog Breeds > Bichon Frise > Potty training a 5 year old bichon frise

Potty training a 5 year old bichon frise

19 15:17:44

Question
Our bichon frise is nearly 5 years old and has never pooped in our back yard! It took us about 3 months to train him to pee in the back yard in our current home (we've been here a year and a half), but he never took to pooping out there! We have to take him on a walk to a very specific field a couple blocks away - and with a 3-month old baby in the rainy Oregon winter - well, I'm just not sure that we'll be able to take a nice long walk every day...

We adopted Max when he was two years old and he was perfectly pottty trained... but he would only make outside if he was being walked on a leash. We had one heartbreaking 18 hour period where I "walked" him in our backyard every hour and he HELD IT until I walked him down the street!!

When we first moved in here, we tried desperately to train him to go out back. He finally peed after about a week of taking him outside ALL the time, praising him like crazy and pummeling him with biscuits! But he's only pooped outside TWO times... in a year and a half! Unfortunately, the times when we did try to train him (the same several weeks we were trying to get him to pee), he pooped in the house (something he would NEVER do otherwise - he's a very good boy). I'm watching the rain outside right now and really starting to worry about the long winter ahead. Do you have any suggestions to help teach Max that its ok to poop in our back yard? He's very stubborn about this issue and I really don't want him pooping in the house again! Is it just too late to teach him anything new? HELP!!!

Answer
The breed is extremely difficult to housebreak.  They are just stubborn and mature late.   I do recommend kennel training.  They do not like to go out when the ground is wet Don't ask me why.  Fortunately I live in Souther California and it almost never rains.   

Also if the dog came from a pet store/ puppy mill they are dysfuctional from that experience and just about impossible to houebreak.